Jefferson County’s only football team with a postseason berth lost in the first round, but team members were upbeat on their first day back at school after the Class 1B football quarterfinal. Quilcene lost 50-46 to the Naselle Comets on Friday at Aberdeen. The Comets, 11-0 in regular season play proved better-prepared than Quilcene’s Rangers, who came into the playoffs 8-2. “They returned a kickoff on us, returned a punt on us, picked up two on-sides,” sophomore running back and defensive back Bishop Budnek summarized. “That put us in a hole and we weren’t able to crawl out.” But he said he was proud of his team-mates’ courage in the loss. “We just stayed in and we kept trying.” Budnek had a big game, scoring twice in the first half, and Chase Newman made a dash to the end-zone count. But even with that barrage, Naselle was ahead 42-22 by half-time. Budnek had 29 carries for 360 yards. Budnek’s brother Zach, a junior who plays tight end and nose guard said the players learned a lot in the playoff game at Stewart Field in Aberdeen.” The game goes on no matter what and you still have time to change the outcome with work.” Gathered around a phone at Quilcene High School to contribute their comments, players said they had good reason to hang onto hope during the game. “Last season we were in the same situation and we made a comeback against Sunnyside,” one of them said. “We’ve had the experience of it before, so we kept pounding away and kept playing.” Zach Budnek said the eight-man football Quilcene plays makes for a wide-open, fast paced game. “We play with the same field size,” he said. “It’s a whole lot of running, a lot more pressure and there’s a lot more one-on-one constantly during the game.” Budnek called Quilcene’s quarterback, senior Holden Elkins, “a wonderful athlete” who may be hard to replace. But the players on Monday’s phone interview said they look forward to working out this coming summer with Nathan Kieffer, a sophomore quarterback who will learn to lead the offense. They count the season a success and the last line, as the phone call wrapped up? “Wait till next year, baby!”